It is a well-known fact that a typical recruitment process is time intensive and even the fortune 500 companies and recruitment experts are striving hard to minimize the hiring time. Moreover, organizations and recruiters are under increasing pressure to hire superior talent quickly while striving to reduce hiring costs.

According to a study, 57% of job applicants lose interest in the vacant position if the hiring process is too long. Therefore, to avoid losing out on top candidates it becomes impertinent to stay ahead in the talent market as an employer.

There could be several factors that cause delays in the hiring process therefore it is important to identify the areas that need to improve. In this write-up we will be covering the key aspects to consider if you aim to reduce the time to hire.

What is “time to hire”?

Time to hire is one of the most critical hiring metrics. It refers to the time taken for an applicant to proceed through the organization’s hiring process from the time the candidate submits the job application till the offer acceptance stage for a job position. In addition to time to hire, time to fill is also considered along with time to hire. Here time to fill refers to the time taken to fill a job vacancy from the time a job requirement opens up till the candidate is hired.

Why is reducing the time to hire is important?

• Enables recruiters to stay ahead of their hiring goals.
• Helps employers stay competent in the talent market.
• Reduces cost per hire and overall hiring cost.
• Serves as an indication of a good employer brand.
• Can potentially improve candidate experience.
• Ensures quality hires as top talents prefer shorter waiting periods.

1. Empower candidate sourcing

Candidate sourcing is one of the most crucial steps that might consume unpredictable time and resources. This is why it is important to streamline candidate sourcing steps to optimize the time to hire. Here it is important to engage in multiple channels for candidate sourcing so that you can expect a consistent number of applicants.

Enable semi-automated job posting

There are several online tools and platforms that enable running paid job campaigns targeting a relevant set of audiences. Such tools come with a functionality to schedule and post job postings in several platforms in a single click. They also give per-post insights regarding the post reach and engagement metrics thereby helping recruiters improve their job posts.

Engage in social media talent attraction strategies

Social media has the potential to significantly reduce time to hire. This has become a main stay to highlight job vacancies since the number of users are increasing day-by-day. Further, social media allows recruiters to reach a wider pool of candidates. According to a study, social media job posts and adverts are capable of reaching 80% of passive job seekers. Therefore, mastering your social media talent acquisition is the need of the hour.

Have a job or employee referral system in place

Providing an opportunity for the organization’s employees to refer candidates from their known circles and extending the job referral campaign to other circles can significantly reduce time to source candidates. This also enables free word of mouth promotion for the job post. Here it is important to keep the job referral campaign well rewarding to reap maximum benefits.

2. Invest in the right recruitment management tools

AI-ML enabled recruitment tools

Technology such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are increasingly being utilized in recruitment tools. For instance, AI resume parsing tools can intelligently rank candidates based on their skills, experience, educational qualifications and so on. AI and ML tools can also engage your candidates with chatbots, notifications, test automation, writing Job Descriptions, which you can customize. This can effectively save a recruiter’s time.

Implement automation

Recruitment automation undoubtedly reduces time to hire as it takes care of redundant processes thereby offering recruiters more time which can be utilized elsewhere. There are several labor-intensive steps in recruitment that cost time and effort where automation comes as a helping hand. Moreover, automation is predominantly a one-time hiring investment.

Work for recruitment process integration

A typical recruitment process involves several processes such as candidate sourcing, candidate screening, skill assessment, interview scheduling and applicant tracking. As all such recruitment processes are connected to each other it is ideal to connect the tools used for each hiring step. Leading recruiters tend to manage all the recruitment processes from a centralized location such as an Applicant Tracking System.

3. Streamline your recruitment process flow

Build a talent pipeline well in advance

Shopify witnessed a hike in the number of employees from 550 to 2,000 in just 3 years due to their highly focused and streamlined talent pipelining. Therefore, if you intend to reduce the time to hire while scaling your hiring process, the most important thing is to plan in advance the hiring strategy to be implemented for a particular job role.

Keep your hiring team proactive and focused

Being a recruiter, it is important to stay proactive in building a talent pool and attracting passive candidates. Therefore, it is important to have an open link or form where candidates can drop their CVs. Keep your organization’s career page informative and mobile compliant where interested candidates can submit applications and register to receive job alerts for future job vacancies.

Consider internal hiring

Internal hiring is one of the quickest ways to fill urgent vacancies as it involves reshuffling employees from within the organization. This is because the time to find the candidate, the application process, candidate filtration, training, onboarding can be made quicker with a robust internal hiring pipeline. Most importantly, the candidate getting adapted to the new job role will be faster as the candidate will be well aware of the work culture. It also helps efficiently handle surplus staff.

Enable data-driven hiring

It is important to keep your hiring endeavors data-driven. With a data-driven hiring approach, the recruitment process can be made easier and more focused. Moreover, it becomes easier for recruiters and HR heads to decide on the steps where the hiring teams should focus more on. Also, analyzing and keeping track of the hiring success rate on a periodical basis becomes easier with data.

4. Outsourcing recruitment processes

Recruitment process outsourcing is considered to be a popular option that can promise reduced time to hire while not compromising on the quality of the hire. The primary reason behind this being recruitment agencies and hiring professionals are well known for their experience and expertise in the hiring process. In addition to that industry professionals having excellent talent network are utilized to quickly source candidates. Apart from sourcing, independent recruiters with niche hiring expertise are leveraged for candidate selection processes such as skill assessments, interviews, and background verification.

Outsourcing hiring enables utilization of the latest tools and technology, control over the process, scalability while keeping the cost and time to hire uncompromised.

Final Takeaways

Time to hire is often a highly misinterpreted and underestimated hiring metric that has the potential to affect the organization’s hiring goal and cost. Therefore, recruiters need to systematically identify bottlenecks at each step of the hiring process in order to take a call regarding the steps that are time intensive and act accordingly to minimize the time taken.

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